Inside a Snow Globe
by astral symphony
Summary: "Of course, it was another time, during another war; another Potter with another redhead. She grins, returning to her spot behind the bar where several unwashed steins wait. Anyone with eyes could see the love between those kids: then and now." J/L, G/H


**author's notes** | written for the ficlympics over on tumblr. the event was 'biathlon' and the prompt was two characters, stories, or ships together in one fic, should be connected. so this is what i came up with. wrote this relatively quickly and nothing really happens but- there you have it.

* * *

Rosmerta runs a cloth along the inside of a glass stein. She's been drying off the same stein for quite some time now, losing track of herself as she stares outside the foggy-edged windows. Snow drifts languidly from the sky in thick flakes, accumulating on every still surface it touches. Everything is quiet.

She is particularly fond of The Three Broomsticks at night, after the doors have closed with one last jingle of the bell. Of course, with the war brewing and curfews being encouraged, closing is much earlier as of late. Still, darkness has already settled outside. The sky is strangely saturated for eight o'clock, casting a cerulean glow on the dimming earth. Inside the bar, torches line the wall and flicker sporadically. Shadows dance across the tables and floor while the bottles and glasses sparkle with yellow light.

It is when Rosmerta puts down the stein, satisfied with its cleanliness, and reaches to her right to pick up another that she notices it: a stirring. It's subtle and gone in a flash, but she is almost positive she saw something moving outside. Her hand pauses over the glass, momentarily immobile as she squints her eyes while staring outside the front window. The only thing moving out there, though, is snow.

"Just paranoid," she trills with a sigh. Her heart steadies in her chest. Just in case, though, she reaches behind her and plucks her wand from its place above the bar. Perhaps not the best place for it during a war, but Hogsmeade has been relatively safe this time around. For extra safety and in order to calm her nerves, she places it in her pocket.

She picks up the next glass, cloth in hand, and that's when she sees it again, a flash of movement from outside. She drops the stein onto the bar top; it lands with a heavy clunk.

"Oh, bugger!" she cries, her voice echoing against the walls. "Were those legs?" she asks of the empty room. "With no body?" Interest piqued, Rosmerta rushes to the window. Her auburn curls bounce around her shoulders, wild and untamed.

There is nothing, now, but she does not move. All she sees are snowflakes and rustling branches. She refuses to give up the effort, though, and peers closer out the window. She presses her palms to the windowpane, the glass cool to the touch. It sends a shiver through her arms and down her spine. Determined to get as good a look as possible, she leans into the glass. Her nose is almost touching it and her breath sends a blast of fog onto the window.

Her efforts are soon rewarded, though, when two gangly bodies appear out of nowhere. She jumps back, startled, but quickly settles herself down as she squints through the pane.

She sees nothing malicious here. In fact, a smile spreads wide across her face.

_xxx_

"_Ow_!"

"Sorry."

"For someone who's a Seeker, you've got awful coordination."

"It's not my fault. We're too tall to both fit under this thing."

"_Merlin_, Harry! You've kicked me again."

"You're the one who insisted on being in front!"

She made a noise something between a snort and a sigh before coming to a complete stop. He bumped against her due to the unexpected stillness and then felt a flash of cool air against his ankle when she pivoted. She faced him, now, their faces close enough that he could count the freckles on her nose.

"You're quite clumsy."

Harry chuckled and he could see his breath in the cold. He was thankful, in that moment, standing with his nose and mouth mere centimeters from Ginny's, that he remembered to brush his teeth before leaving the dormitory.

"Have you considered this was my plan all along? To bother you enough that you stop and turn. Much better view, this is," he commented with a lopsided grin.

Ginny rolls her eyes and raises herself on tiptoe, just enough to place a light kiss on the tip of his nose. "I don't think you're at all clever enough for that."

"Such doubt," he said through a sigh. She started to turn back around, perhaps with the intention of marching forward, but he caught her chin with his hand quick enough to surprise her into staying still. His thumb brushed against her bottom lip for a brief moment before he tilted her head back and kissed her. She leaned into it, her left hand meeting his shoulder while the right rested against his cheek, her palm cool against his skin.

"Surely you didn't lure me here just to have snog in the snow," she said, breaking the kiss but not their closeness. "We could have done that in the Room of Requirement," she quipped.

"It's far more romantic here."

"Hogsmeade in the dark," she said flatly. "It doesn't get much better than that."

"It really doesn't!" He kissed her again, quick and sweet, before swiping the invisibility cloak from both of them. He slung it across his right elbow before grabbing her hand with his left.

xxx

Rosmerta watches as Harry Potter and the pretty ginger start down the cobblestone street. Their feet leave dark prints in the snow, creating a trail of their path. She takes not of the way their fingers lace together and their shoulders bump against one another. It seems intentional, a lover's jest, as the girl – one of the Weasley clan, she believes – throws back her head. Her mouth is wide and Rosmerta can almost hear the tinkling laughter pouring from her voice. Soon, they are out of sight and she is struck, instead, with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.

This scene before her is remarkably familiar.

Of course, it was another time, during another war; another Potter with another redhead. She grins, returning to her spot behind the bar where several unwashed steins wait. Anyone with eyes could see the love between those kids: then and now.

It was nearly twenty years ago and she had just begun working at The Three Broomsticks. It was on a night like tonight, with snow falling at near-blizzard speed as she cleaned, sopping up spilled butterbeer with a bewitched mop while enchanting the stools to flip themselves over on the bar top.

Similarly, that night a figure appeared out of nowhere, just outside her window. It was less startling then, as she did not see the actual reveal. In one moment, no one. The next?

xxx

"James Edward Potter!" she squealed. His arms wrapped around her and she let out a shriek of laughter. "I did trek through smelly, cobwebbed tunnels for you to snog me like I'm a regular old slag!"

"Really?" James inquired, raising an eyebrow and bringing his lips against her ear. "You were quite content acting the slag about an hour ago in that corridor, Miss Evans."

Lily felt the heat rising to her cheeks and swatted his face away, doing her best to ignore the shivers that involuntarily spread across her body.

"Regardless," she said with a sigh, catching his hand in hers and twining their fingers together. He gave her hand a squeeze: three quick pulses, just like always. It made her smile. "I thought we came here for something better than just a snog in the snow."

He tucked the invisibility cloak under his arm, heading down the cobblestone path without a word.

"James?"

Nothing.

"Ja-_ames_," she cooed.

Still nothing.

"Oh, bloody hell!" she muttered and slowed her pace so that she fell several steps behind him. Her head lolled back and she closed her eyes against the snow. Lily stomped defiantly, huffing and puffing in full dramatic form.

James turned a corner though quickly doubled back. The sudden changes in direction caused Lily to bump into him with a quiet "Oh!" Rather than allowing the space to return between them, she instead wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her lips to his shoulder.

"Are we there?"

"Quiet," he whispered.

"_O-_kay," she mumbled doubtfully.

James turned around in her arms, looking down at her with serious eyes. Behind furrowed brows she stared back, curious and inexplicably nervous. He placed one hand on either arm, bowing his head slightly to hers so that their noses were only a hair away.

"Lily," he said in hushed tones.

"James," she responded, just as serious.

"I'm about to show you something that you cannot share with anyone else, ever. Okay? Not any of your mates, not Sirius or Remus or Peter, not even Professor Dumbledore."

"You're making me nervous," she said with a shaky breath. "Are you about to show me the body of someone you murdered or something?"

"Worse, Evans. Even worse."

"Um…" she said uneasily, eyebrows drawn tight together and bringing a hand to the side of his face, cupping his cheek in her palm. "Is everything okay? Are _you_ okay?"

"Just close your eyes and come with me," he said solemnly.

So she closed her eyes shut and he took her hand, leading her blindly around the corner at the end of High Street. Finally, after several seconds of walking in surrounding silence that made the crunching of snow echo in their ears, he pulled her to a stop.

Lily's eyes were still closed when he kissed her, much more fervently than their previous kisses. She hummed contentedly against his mouth, her hands coming up around his neck. The cool feel of her fingertips against the back of his neck sent sharp shivers shooting through his spine. He brought the kiss to a languid stop, creating a standstill in which their lips still touched but neither moved. James moved a centimeter away before scattering one, two, three butterfly kisses along the surface of her mouth before pulling away completely.

"Open your eyes," he said.

xxx

"I've never seen this part of Hogsmeade before," Ginny said thoughtfully, looking all around them. The snow had started falling faster all around them, swirling flakes of white blustering about at high speeds. The flakes sparkled in the moonlight overhead, creating something of a glittering universe.

"It's, er, sort of hidden I guess."

"I feel like we've been walking for miles."

"Come on, Weasley, I thought you were athletic?"

She swatted at his arm, laughing. "Yes, when I'm on a broomstick. _Not_, however, when I'm trudging through snow at night. Merlin, it must be close to nine o'clock!"

"Let's go, Ginny. Almost there," Harry said, smiling and squeezing three pulses into her palm.

xxx

"What is –"

"Shh."

Lily glanced around her, confused. There was nothing there. Just hills of snow overlooking mountains that faded into the navy sky. The moon tonight must have been close to full, casting a silvery-blue glow on every surface. There was a village somewhere in the distance which created several yellow orbs that lit up among the snowcapped evergreens.

xxx

"What is this?" Ginny asked, eyes wide as she looked at him. The bright moon was reflected in her eyes, sparkling across her face.

"I'm not entirely sure to be honest," Harry admitted with a laugh. He slid his arm across her shoulders, pulling her close to him.

"It's beautiful," she remarked as she took in the scene before her.

It was quiet, if a view could be described as such. The snow seemed to be falling slower, now; it was as if they were entering slow-motion. The world closed in around them like a snow globe.

xxx

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" James breathed.

Lily smiled. "It's wonderful. But why –"

"The build-up?" he asked. She nodded. "It's a little sappy, don't you think? Dragging you all the way here just to show you something pretty."

"Ah," she said with an amused smirk. "And we would not want to ruin your reputation, would we?"

"No," he agreed. "Not at all."

xxx

Harry and Ginny stood in silence for a while, just staring and breathing and existing together.

He kissed the top of her head. She looked up at him, snaking a hand behind his neck to encourage his head forward. She leaned upward and caught the side of his jaw with her mouth, kissing him softly along his neck until he found her lips with his. It was the sort of kiss that was slow and urgent at the same time. He had never kissed her quite like this before, but it seemed appropriate. His hands fell to her waist and she clung to his shoulders as she kissed him back.

xxx

"Lily."

"Hm?"

"I think I'm in love with you."

xxx

Harry broke the kiss momentarily, tearing his mouth from hers just a centimeter. Just enough to whisper to her, "I am absolutely crazy for you, Ginny." He punctuated his words with a kiss. "I love you."

The words felt clumsy and foreign in his mouth. He had never uttered them in this sense of their meaning before. This was the first time he used them for the time-stopping, heart-pounding, mind-blowing definition of that small word.

"I love you, too."

And if it was possible, the world slowed down even more around them. It was almost at a standstill. Snowflakes were paused mid-air and branches stopped moving with the wind. There was only a boy and a girl and three important words.

xxx

Lily was silent, her lips parted in an 'o' and eyebrows raised almost to her hairline. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

"I know I've been with plenty of girls, but never like this. I've never said those words. I've never even wanted to, Lily. I've never wanted to take some girl to the outskirts of Hogsmeade where there's nothing but dark and quiet. I've never been so content just holding someone's hand before. So really, I don't think there's any question about it. I love you, Lily. I am madly, crazily, painfully in love with you."

She swallowed hard. He searched her nervously for any reaction he could read, his palms growing sweaty as anxiety took over. He hoped she did not notice as he wiped them on his trousers. But finally, her mouth closed and her eyebrows lowered and a small twitch lifted the corner of her mouth.

"I love you, too."

xxx

And while the snow swirls all around the village and Rosmerta dutifully cleans the heavy glass steins, she can't help but smile broadly at the thought of these boys and girls who appeared suddenly in front of her window.

She thinks of their love and their laughter; she thinks of the fights they'll have and the tears that will be shed.

She thinks of their marriages and their children and their futures.

She thinks of the love they found during war and the strength it encouraged.

All of this, while the snow swirls like inside a snow globe.


End file.
